W E LC O M E
Welcome to a new season of classical music at Southbank Centre.
Visits from West-Eastern Divan Orchestra under Daniel Barenboim,
and Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, are among the
highlights of a rich and varied season.
We’re proud to announce pianist Pierre-Laurent Aimard as our newest
Artist in Residence. He has programmed Ligeti In Wonderland: a
weekend-long festival of concerts and talks where you can step inside
the adventurous world of this pioneering composer.
The Orgelbüchlein Project, a mission to complete Bach’s set of organ
miniatures, and two tasters from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Tapas
series – commissions under 6 minutes long – bring you brief encounters
with the music of the 21st century.
Many of this year’s concerts form part of two festivals: Belief and Beyond
Belief explores what it means to be human in the 21st century and features
the Emerson Quartet playing Beethoven’s late quartets, and Nordic Matters
takes a look at what’s happening in Nordic art, culture and society.
Our four Resident Orchestras also present around 100 concerts, playing
music from the Baroque to the brand new – you can find details in their
own season brochures and on our website
Join us for some of the finest music you’ll find anywhere in the world,
right here on the South Bank.
Gillian Moore MBE
Director of Music

Simon Johnson, the organist of St
Paul’s Cathedral, pairs two mighty
works by Bach and Reubke. Johnson’s
own contribution to the Orgelbüchlein
Project, a completion of Bach’s
unfinished set of chorale preludes,
and Jonathan Harvey’s Toccata add a
contemporary twist.

Matthias Pintscher conducts the
ensemble in one of Boulez’s most
ethereal works alongside the more
overtly spiritual Bhakti, the Hindu word
for a devotional act of faith, by Jonathan
Harvey. The programme is completed by
Philippe Schoeller’s piece inspired by
the Olympian god, Hermes.
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£45, £35, £25, £15

Listen to the charming, intimate
music of Grieg. The Lyric Pieces are
performed as part of Southbank
Centre’s year-long focus festival,
Nordic Matters. They are steeped in
folklore, the echoes of traditional
instruments and the distinctive, lively
and soulful melodies of Norwegian
folk music. Alice Sara Ott finishes
the recital with Liszt’s Sonata in B
minor, one of the best-loved and most
dramatic works in the romantic piano
repertoire, displaying to the utmost the
pianist’s formidible virtuoso skills.

Bach’s last composition, left
unfinished at his death, has long
been the source of intrigue. Was it
written for organ? Was it intended
as an abstract, instructive work, or a
monument of instrumental polyphony?
Anne Page returns to Royal Festival
Hall to tackle this musical odyssey.

The Emerson Quartet are known for their
technically extraordinary interpretations
of Beethoven’s electrifying late quartets.
Beethoven was profoundly deaf and
well aware that he was approaching
death when he wrote these
emotionally searching works.
St John’s Smith Square, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £15 £10

NOVEMBER
Wednesday 1 November 2017

EMERS ON QUA RTE T
International Chamber Music Series,
Belief and Beyond Belief
Beethoven String Quartet in A minor,
Op.132, String Quartet in B flat, Op.130
vers. with Grosse Fuge, Op.133
The Emerson Quartet continue their
exploration of Beethoven’s late
quartets. These concerts form part of
Belief and Beyond Belief, our festival
examining art that speaks of the divine
and the human spirit.
St John’s Smith Square, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £15 £10

Shostakovich Piano Trio No.2 in E
minor, Op.67
Messiaen Quatuor pour la fin du temps
Hear two great works that emerged
from the horrors of war. Shostakovich’s
Piano Trio No.2 was composed in the
aftermath of the Siege of Leningrad,
during which a million citizens were
killed. Messiaen wrote his Quartet for
the End of Time in a prisoner of war
camp, and performed it there with
three fellow detainees to an audience
of prisoners and their guards.
St John’s Smith Square, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £15 £10

M I TS U KO U C H I DA ,
PI A N O
International Piano Series
Schubert Sonata in C minor, D.958;
Sonata in A, D.664; Sonata in G, D.894
Continuing her three-year collaboration
with Southbank Centre, Mitsuko Uchida
performs the great C minor Sonata
D.958, a work of overwhelming drama
and almost fevered imagination. She
follows it with the ‘little’ A major Sonata
D.664, one of the most lyrical and
intimate in Schubert’s output. After the
interval, Uchida traverses the sublime
expanses of the Sonata in G major.
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£65, £50, £35, £20, £10

DECEMBER
Friday 1 December 2017

M I TS U KO U C H I DA ,
PI A N O
International Piano Series
Schubert Sonata in B, D.575; Sonata in
A minor, D.845; Sonata in D, D.850
In the second recital of her series
exploring Schubert’s sonatas, Mitsuko
Uchida highlights some of the
lesser-known works, ending with the
high-octane D major Sonata D.850, an
exceptionally extroverted sonata for the
composer. Wit, humour and good nature
dance through its four movements.
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£65, £50, £35, £20, £10

International Piano Series
Haydn Sonata in C, Hob.XVI/50
Beethoven 6 Bagatelles, Op.126
Brahms 6 Pieces, Op.118
Haydn Sonata in G, Hob.XVI/40
In a new series spanning this season
and next, Paul Lewis brings together
three key figures – Haydn, Beethoven
and Brahms – by tracing the thread of
musical heritage from one to the next.
Haydn’s sparkling and witty sonatas
bookend Beethoven’s lyricism and
Brahms’ reflectiveness.

Principal organist to Westminster
Abbey’s Choir, Daniel Cook is
recognised internationally as a
liturgical and concert organist. His
programme includes Stanford’s tribute
to those who gave their lives for France
in the Great War, and Vierne’s thrilling
sixth organ symphony.

FEBRUARY

Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£15

Wednesday 7 February 2018

M ARTIN H E L M C H E N,
P IANO
International Piano Series
Schumann Novelletten, Op.21 Nos.1, 2,
5&8
Beethoven 33 Variations on a waltz by
Diabelli, Op.120
Helmchen has built an enviable
reputation particularly in the classical
and romantic repertoire. Schumann’s
Novelletten form the largest and the
least known among Schumann’s major
piano cycles with the music clearly
written in an exultant mood. In the
second half we hear Beethoven’s
Diabelli Variations, a startlingly original
masterpiece filled with power, wit and
virtuosity.
St John’s Smith Square, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £15 £10

M AU RIZ IO POLLINI,
P IANO
International Piano Series
Programme to be announced
The Italian pianist’s performances
at Southbank Centre have always
proved highlights of the season. In
recent years, he has been praised for
his ‘peerless, supremely authoritative
performances’ (The Guardian).
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£65 £50 £35 £20 £10

ST EVE REICH’S
D I FFER ENT TRA I N S
International Chamber Music Series
London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists
Programme includes:
Steve Reich Different Trains (London
premiere of this version)
Hear Steve Reich’s meditation on the
Holocaust on the 30th anniversary of
its world premiere in Queen Elizabeth
Hall. Written for string quartet and
tape, the work’s melodies emerge from
the spoken reminiscences of Reich’s
governess, an American Pullman
porter and three Holocaust survivors.
Bill Morrison’s new film accompanying
Reich’s music receives its London
premiere.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £21 £15 £10

International Chamber Music Series
Morton Feldman King of Denmark
Stockhausen Klavierstück X
Harrison Birtwistle New work
(Southbank Centre commission)
Hear a world premiere commissioned
to mark the reopening of Queen
Elizabeth Hall. Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s
music has long been associated with
the hall, which has hosted world and
UK premieres of his works over the last
five decades.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm
£25 £20 £15 £10

Tuesday 24 April 2018

WI LLIAM W HI T E HE A D,
O RG A N
International Organ Series
Nicholaus Bruhns Praeludium in E
minor (Great)
Orgelbüchlein Project Five selected pieces
Schumann Mässig, doch nicht zu
langsam (No.4) & Lebhaft (No.5) from 6
Fugues on the name BACH, Op.60
Parry Fantasia and Fugue in G, Op.188
Liszt Fantasia and fugue on ‘Ad nos, ad
salutarem undam’, S.259
William Whitehead is currently
curating a major international
project to fill in the gaps in Bach’s
Orgelbüchlein. 118 new pieces by
different composers complement
Bach’s original works and ‘complete’
his intended collection of 164 chorale
preludes. Tonight, hear a selection of
these new preludes, alongside earlier
composers’ homages to Bach.
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£15
Royal Festival Hall at 6.15pm: Free
pre-concert talk

The orchestra continues its journey
through Beethoven’s symphonies with
the majestic Symphony No.7. Framing
the famous slow-build of the Allegretto
are a boisterous first movement,
scintillating Presto and ebullient finale.

The Trio represented an aesthetic
turning point in Ligeti’s career. The
choice of instruments is in homage
to Brahms’ horn trio, and as in Ligeti’s
subsequent work, the piece revisits
and transforms traditional forms.

A second helping from the Berliner
Philharmoniker’s series of short
commissions heralds two symphonies
written just over a century apart.
Whereas Brahms felt that he was
following in the hallowed footsteps
of Beethoven, Lutosławski broke new
ground by giving players instructions
to perform certain sections of his
symphony ‘in their own time’, building
up rich and complex textures.

P IE RRE-L AU RE NT
AIM ARD, P IANO
Ligeti in Wonderland,
International Piano Series
Ligeti Etudes
Followed by interview and audience Q&A
The 18 Études are arguably one of the
most significant piano masterpieces of
the last century.
Stretching the performer to extraordinary
technical feats, they are unified by poetic
imagery that ranges from Autumn in
Warsaw to the ‘Sorcerer’s Apprentice’,
from rainbows to ‘The Devil’s Staircase’.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm
£25 £20 £15 £10

Tuesday 29 May 2018

TH E TROU T QU INTE T
International Chamber Music Series

Brahms Piano Quartet No.1 in G minor,
Op.25
Schubert Piano Quintet in A, D.667 (Trout)
In 1969, a group of young stars including
Daniel Barenboim and Jacqueline du
Pré took to the stage in the recently
opened Queen Elizabeth Hall to
perform Schubert’s much-loved Trout
Quintet. Now Benjamin Grosvenor and
his friends unite for a contemporary
presentation of this piece with a
powerful history, alongside another gem
of the chamber music repertoire.
Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7.30pm
£38 £28 £21 £15 £10

PAU L LEWIS, PIANO
International Piano Series
Beethoven 11 Bagatelles, Op.119
Haydn Sonata in E flat, Hob.XVI/49;
Sonata in B minor, Hob.XVI/32
Brahms 4 Pieces, Op.119
In his second recital of the season, Paul
Lewis takes on the witty and occasionally
eccentric set of 11 Bagatelles by
Beethoven and Brahms’ final work for
solo piano – four lyrical short pieces
that show the essence of the composer
at his strongest and most succinct.
Royal Festival Hall, 7.30pm
£55 £40 £30 £20 £10

Book more and save
Series discounts are available for
concerts in the International Piano
Series, International Chamber Music
Series or International Organ Series.
The discount will be applied to
standard tickets booked in the same
transaction. Full details are available
online or from our Ticket Office.
Student Pulse
A limited number of £7 student
tickets are available via the
Student Pulse app in the month
before each concert. Visit
studentpulselondon.co.uk to find
out more or download from any
app store.